Earlyish 19th Century Lacquered Snuff Box in Tortoiseshell Paint wooden sword I can almost hear him

I can almost hear him chatting away

) And I believe it is a pretty old carving

with a corresponding text card for each bird

I believe it is a Tagua nut that was carved to make this little head

and/or inkstone

Earlyish 19th Century Lacquered Snuff Box in Tortoiseshell Paint wooden sword I can almost hear himI'm glad for tobacco in the sense that it gave rise to so many lovely snuff boxes to love now. And with so many produced in such variety, quite a nice and endlessly rewarding! thing to collect. It's the cumulative effect of shape and scalloped lid and lacquered surface on this one that does it for me making the hinged, papier mache box look not just like tortoiseshell, but in fact rather like the shell of a tortoise (as if his head and tail might